I've been MIA for the past week.My elderly mother fell and broke her hip and is in the hosptal doing rehap. Remarkably, she is up and walking and we hope to have her fully mobile soon enough. She said to me, that now she is like the child and I am her parent. It is true, that at some point, if you are lucky enough to have a parent who reaches an advanced age, that your role is reveresed; whereas once they worried about you eating right, bundling up against the cold and making sure not to catch a cold, you now assume the poisition of parent to your parent.
My mother is the best caregiver in the world but is the worst patient. She readily admits it too. She can't take any kind of pain. It is hard for me to see her laying in bed, whereas she was always up and about and verylively. Thankfully her mind is good, and she is still able to complain about the economy, or how bad the food is, and can I bring her potato chips and ice cream. (Hey, she's 92 if she wants it, she's getting it!) She knows that this is a big set back for her. She was living just one month in a n assisted living facility. We had moved her out of her big house becuse we were afraid of this happening there. So it happened where she was surrounded by people.
I guess the point of this post is that we as mothers (and fathers) are always in some type of caregiver situation. Our children can get older and they think they need us less, but it isn't so; they just need us differently. As our parents age, we assume the role of their caregiver; most elderly pople don't have anyone to advocate for them. All my life my mother has cared for me; I could never give up on her. We just take it in stride and add it to the list of what we as parents know is a never ending job.
